Chef Gary Williams of DeJavu Restaurant talks about his life,and wants to show you a healthier way to eat. How long have you been coming to DeJavu Restaurant and never knew that the vegetables you eat are not just vegetarian, but vegan vegetarian. Please respond and comment and by all means give us your feedback on the blog. This blog does not take the place of a doctor, or his expertise, it just offers you a recipe for his prescription, stay in touch, come in , eat-up, and carry out.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

DeJavu Food Truck

DeJavu Restaurant has a new addition to the Family; "DeJavu To You"our new Food Truck. Chef Gary Williams and the DeJavu family are excited to bring to you a mobile kitchen.

We have a cooking trailer now, and we can travel, we gonna
do all the festivals and take her out on our Catering jobs. Let's have some fun, this thing is
awesome, it’s completely outfitted for everything we need. We will still be serving all of the same
things that we cook inside our kitchen at the restaurant.
We want you to come on out; we are going to call it “DeJavu to You”. Taking a tour around the Trailer you can see
Bourbon Street and everything New Orleans.
And you already know we are going to have the same great taste coming out of this
kitchen. You guys are going to have a
great time.

Now check this out, we got 504 in the house, the “Who Dat
Nation”. Moving on along and looking at
the other side of the trailer we got Canal Street. We want you to call us for all of your
Catering needs, here in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as the Tri-State area. We will even come to Missouri, wherever we
need to be. We are already having a
goodtime, let walk on around. This guy
did a great job on the paintjob. It’s
rustic looking, its us. You see this art
is musical instruments, DeJavu, the masks, as we say in New Orleans, “Laissez
Les Bons Temps Rouler”, Let the GoodTimes Roll!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Hello folks its Chef Gary here, in South Memphis, in Memphis
Tennessee. We gonna go over a vegan dish
called Mushroom, Spinach Quesadillas; its created by my son Rondell, over there
in Las Vegas, going to Culinary Arts School.
He is one of the Chefs out there at the Wynn Casino.

We gonna go thru this right quick, Portabello Mushroom,
going in, we started off with our trinity.
Portabello Mushrooms going into this mixture,and we gonna add some
spinach. Add a little cumin, a little
southwestern flavor, and a mixture of Tony Catchers and Italian seasonings,
oregano, and that’s all that is in there.
Saute that up real quick, and meanwhile get the second skillet ready. This Quesadilla is a 5 minute dish folks, it
makes a great appetizer and we serve it all day in the Restaurant as an entree. So this is vegan; we add a little vegan
cheese on top of the tortilla in the other skillet. We gonna let that melt down, just spread the cheese all over the tortilla.

Give the Spinach and Mushroom mixture a few more tosses to
finish. The smell is out of this
world. Now that we got it already sauteed,
we gonna move it on over to the other skillet.
This Quesadilla, you can get it right here at DeJavu in South
Memphis. Spread the mixture over one
half of the tortilla, and fold the second half over, and press slightly. In a matter of seconds we gonna have
Quesadillas. Get your chopping board
ready. Now carefully turn the quesadilla
over to the other side, and we almost ready.

Spinach, Mushroon, Quesadilla is portabello mushroom, fresh
spinach, we got the trinity in there;
bell peppers, onions, a little dry seasonings, our little blend we do here at
DeJavu, and vegan cheese that you can pick up at a local Whole Foods
Store. The cheese is the glue, that’s
gonna keep it all together.

Now slide your Quesadilla from the pan to a chopping
board. While it’s nice and hot, slice it
in to fours, first starting straight down the middle, then to more slices. Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas served with
black bean and corn salsa.

This will take you all the way thru. Stay true to the Roux with DeJavu.

A Special note:We will now be including some of our fans and friends feedback on their preparation of the dish. You can post your pictures to our facebook page, or if you can make a video comment on our youtube channel.This week our insert comes from facebok fan Big Keith. Keith is one of the DeJavu Family and is quite familiar with how we do things. He was there with us as we filmed this segment so here is his version, that he prepared at home. Great job, Keith, it looks just as good as the one prepared in the restaurant.Remember folks all the dishes prepared here are fairly easy to prepare at home, but you can always come down to the restaurant and get it from Chef Gary.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Hey Folks, this is Chef Gary, we are here at DeJavu and I'm hanging with Chef Franco, and we are about to throw something at you that is going to absolutely blow your mind. It's that time of the year in New Orleans, and we do Gumbo. It's off the chain in New Orleans. Down here at DeJavu we touching bases with the gumbo; and Dr. Franco going in with the Vegan Gumbo. Now you have the choice of real meat or you can have the vegan.

So you guys have nothing to complain about. Now I am going to turn it over to Chef Franco, and he gonna explain to you what's in his Gumbo.

Chef Franco Taylor:

O.K. the whole idea I was told that in New Orleans you got to have the understanding of the Roux. So in order for me to know about roux I came and talked to Chef Gary, and asked him to show me the roux, and I will do the vegan thang. He took me in the kitchen and said, "I'm going to show you my special stuff." He showed me how to make the roux. From there I went home and made the roux; then thru in my own ingredients. I got lobster, but it is vegan lobster. I put in crab, Italian sausage, kielbasa, and then I put in some chicken breast; of course it is all better than meat, other than that seasonings and bases we make from scratch with our mock meat seasonings and mock meat. We got brown rice, we got whole wheat bread. As for those who are vegan and have somewhat felt limited in your choice of gourmet dishes, we have all the meat you love to eat, made from soy, oats and wheat.

Hey guys you heard it from the master Dr. Franco been in the game a long time, and he is here for your consultation needs, and all the vegan vegetarian stuff. I am the meat guy; I stay in my lane, that's what we're talking about. And you get along better when you get it from the expert. Don't come down here looking for no sushi. I don't sell sushi; we ain't Japanese and we don't do that.So today we brought to you the real Vegan Vegetarian Seafood Gumbo and the New Orleans Authentic Gumbo. Thank-you guys for stopping by and next week stand-by we gonna sample this. We gonna show you how to cook it from scratch, starting with the roux, we gonna take you all the way thru. This is Chef Gary, and Chef Franco, keep it true to the roux at DeJavu.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Welcome to "Cooking With Chef Gary". I have two announcements for you today. First it is the Holiday Season and all of you having parties, go ahead and get your pre-order in and your dates on the calendar at DeJavu Restaurant. Next on the Agenda, I want all my friends to know that my first DVD from the Series "Cooking With Chef Gary" is out, and available for sale now.

Today we are going to take you to a special event and give you an idea of our full service setup and display for your buffet style catering. Sometimes we are faced with the challenge of a makeshift kitchen, because there may not be kitchen facilities on site. Of course we can make the bulk of the food at DeJavu Restaurant and transport it to the venue, but I prefer not to do it that way. What I do instead is prep as much as we can before we leave, then prepare your food on site.

First and foremost I pride myself on serving you as my guest the most fresh and perfect food possible. That is why I prefer to go out on location, and prepare your food on site.
So just recently we were entrusted with serving 700 employees for a Employee Appreciation Banquet. The company ordered some of the best foods from DeJavu Restaurant. Although we were to serve in a company substation we made it top of the line service and as if they were being served in a Five Star Hotel.
This was a large job coming from a small place. No Problem for Chef Gary and the staff of DeJavu. Chef James Moore Jr, Nicole, Darnell, Jennifer, Erica, Abby and Chef Gary Shaw was the anchor staff; along with Toni and I. We have worked together closely for years and we all work well together.

DeJavu showed up, we were greeted by the client, and everyone was in a great mood. Its 4 P.M. and we are set to please our guests. Three hours later we had stamped out the goods and we were ready to serve the guest. They came they ate and enjoyed us and each other. All catering jobs have their little bumps, but we always know how to roll with the punches. Some of the employees consider us long lost friends and have already started coming into the restaurant. We even ran across a homeboy from New Orleans, who recognized the aroma of the creole food. Then there were two or three guests that could not get enough of the Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce, but we don't mind a few stalkers. Just kidding, folks; it is always a pleasure to serve you at Dejavu Authentic New Orleans Restaurant.

Now that the Holidays are coming up we are coming up with a Special Holiday Menu. Get your phone calls and orders in early.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Hey Folks here we are at DeJavu Restaurant, 936 Florida Street, I'm your boy Chef Gary. We are gonna do a dessert today, if you remember, last time we had the veggie rolls. Today we're gonna make our World Famous Bananas Foster Cheesecake. It's a dish that was created back in New Orleans in 1952. A particular restaurant had exhaused all the desserts for the night, but when a guest requested dessert, so the chef created this dessert satisfy his guest.Bananas Foster Cheesecake2 Slices of CheesecakeSliced BananasBanana LiquerButterBrown SugarChopped PecansStrawberries to GarnishBrandy for Flambe

Today we have an audience who are going to help us with the tasting. We are gonna start by melting some butter. Now add a little brown sugar, thats about a cup, in New Orleans, but we don't measure or count calories in New Orleans. We gonna flame this up; we gonna add little banana liquer, in other words flaming banana. You ought to hear that sizzling. Boy I can see these calories, but these folks on a diet so don"t worry about it.
After this is done we gonna put it right over the peices of cheesecake. We have some pecans, just add the pecans right on in there. Let the goodtimes Roll; we gonna add some bananas. Now we gonna flame this up. the insurance is paid for so we ought to be good. Just a little joke there.
But the funny about it right now folks is that we have a vegan in the restaurant, with all this butter and sugar, she going bananas. the good thing about DeJavu, here o Florida Street in Memphis Tennesse, by way of New Orleans is that we have vegan desserts, so we got everybody covered.
We gonna Flame this with a little Brandy, so get you pan real good and hot along the bootom back edge. so you can get you a nice little flame going there. I love to drive the vegans crazy with this, but we have banana nut cake, and chocolate cake topped with fresh strawberry. We also have Carrot Raisin Bread for our vegan friends.
While stirring really good you should see the pecans and the caramel in this. Long as you don't come here looking for me to do it all the time, I'll be happy to Flambe you some sauce to go with the Bananas Foster Cheesecake.
while we here I would like to thank you guys for helping us celebrate our 4th Year Anniversary on September 22. You guys have been great, great customers, great friends, great family. You keep it coming man and let everybody know. Don't let the little hole in the wall fool you, we getting down over here.
Here we go; you got your pan nice and hot on the bottom, just pour a little brandy. We don't want the flame too big, there you go. now less the pecans you can serve this over ice cream which is the traditional Bananas Foster. But we put a twist on the Bananas foster by adding pecans and serving over the cheesecake. We gonna quadruple the calories, after that you can take you a long walk and back, then the calories are gone.
Here you are folks Bananas foster Cheesecake, we gonna pour this right over the cheesecake then garnish with some strawberries, and you have it.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Welcome to Cooking With Chef Gary. This week we take you behind the scenes on a Catering Special Event. This is your V.I.P. Backstage Pass to The Stax Museum of American Soul. On McLemore Street in south Memphis Tennessee is where it all begins.

The Stax Records Company is the home of some of the biggest Icons in American Soul Music. Isaac Hayes, Sam and Dave, Ike and Tina Turner, Rufus and Carla Thomas, the MadLads, The Memphis Horns, The Staple Singers, Johnnie Taylor, Booker T. and the M.G.'s, Albert King, Otis Redding and the World Famous Barkays. In addition to the great Soul Singers there are Spectacular music Producers like William Bell, and David Porter.

What a better backdrop for the Culinary Arts of Chef Gary Williams, than the show memorabilia, and the Record and Album Collections hanging in the Stax Museum. Isaac Hayes is the first black to win an Oscar, and that Oscar along with the Famous Gold Cadillac of his is probably the most famous attraction in the Stax Museum. The Cadillac sits on a spinning rotunda with the show lights, as well as his sultry voice telling the story that now is the history behind the purchase order of his famous car.

Meanwhile Chef Gary and Chef James Moore Jr. has their own little creation that they have cooked up in the back tunnel of Stax Museum. We find Chef Gary and James Moore carting a ton of fresh fruit to be unveiled like a red carpet at the foot of Ike and Tina Turners' 60's wardrobes. Chef Gary is well know and Famous himself for the beautiful fruit displays he produces. There are bright red luscious strawberries, pineapples, grapes,honeydew melons, cantaloupes, various cheeses, carrots, brocolli, cherry tomatoes, carrots, all laid out on a bed of curly endive lettuce. What a beautiful organza. Food of the Gods you may say. This is only the beginning the reception area.

Now, the party brings us to the main event, where there is a Pasta serving area, of Sundried Tomato Pasta with Portabello Mushrooms, and A Special White Creme Pasta full of shrimp, and Crayfish. Next we have a bounty of Fried Catfish Fingers, with Tartar Sauce and Spicy Chili sauce. One of the nights favorite was the grilled Chicken Breast served with a spicy mixed Sauce, it was utterly delicious. At the adjacent table you could fill you plate with the thin slices of Beef Round from a Lighted Carving Station, also there was A'Jus Gravy and Rice to top it off, and bite size servings of DeJavu Veggie Rolls. Now the evening would not have been complete without DeJavu's Famous New Orleans Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce.

The guest mingled and nibbled on these delectable bites while enjoying a complimentary bar of many wines and the memorable tunes associated with the Stax Family. The Director of the Stax Museum, Henry Nelson, and his employees extended every courtesy to our staff, as well as assisted us in set up and carry thru. The Stax Museum is available for Special Events, and what better place to be than in Memphis Tennessee, with Food, Music, and Soul.

These facilities are the foundation to maked anyone feel famous including the mere staff of a small little hole in the wall called DeJavu Restaurant.

Now, 4Memphis Magazine has chose DeJavu Restaurant to do a story on. Sandi Butler Hughes, writer, and editor at 4Memphis Magazine stopped by for a tasting; with her was Anthony Scarlati, photographer to the stars.

You know how we roll at DeJavu, so we put the DeJaVu Do, on them. We served the Big Easy Pasta, Our Famous Seafood Gumbo, the Arkansas Outlaw, Veggie rolls, and for dessert it was vegan banana nut bread, Bananas foster Cheesecake, and delicious bread Pudding with whisky sauce. We talked\, ate and did a whole lot of laughing like we do at the Vu. A good time was had by all.

My Sous Chef James Moore Jr was awesome, as he assisted me in the kitchen. On a day to day basis James is side by side in the kitchen working with me to get the orders out, and as some of you know our kitchen is just a little hole in the wall.

Check back with us Cooking with Chef Gary to find out when magazines hit the newstand. I cant wait, see you in the news. UPDATE:
Good news DeJavu is now in 4Memphis Magazine's February 2013 edition. http://www.pageturnpro.com/4Memphis-Magazine/48352-February-2013/index.html#26 Don't take my word for it visit the site and check this great magazine out for yourself! Thanks Sandy for all the Love <3

Friday, August 17, 2012

Welcome to "Cooking With Chef Gary", today we are making veggie rolls.

Chef Gary here, we’re here at 936 Florida Street in Memphis, Tennessee. We gonna show you how
to make veggie rolls today. We also do another variation of this roll, where we put shrimp in
it. Nicole, a long time employee and one of the the kitchen staff will show you how to roll; she is a professional at rolling things.

I’ll go right to it, get your pan good and hot with olive oil. Add the trinity, red, green and yellow peppers mixed with red onions, then add some cabbage. You know I am showing y’all all my secrets of DeJavu, if one of you open a restaurant next door to me I’m gonna be mad. Add a little Salt And Pepper for taste. Now you just sweat it down real good, while giving it a few tosses. Add some shredded carrots, and some fresh Raisins . That's wonderful and adds a little sweet. You don't have the add the raisins unless you want to, it's just a variation. and next we add some curry, then sweat it down about 3 or 4 more minutes.
This is a wonderful dish; if you want to impress your friends. also what we do is we have the naked veggie roll, where you do not have to wrap it or anything. You can just serve it over a bed of rice, or just serve it like this. Just make yourself a full pan of this; its something like a Carribbean dish. I learned it from my goddaughter, she is Vegan Vegetarian vegan vegetarian, raw foods, so she brought me to this when I got here in Memphis.

I'm gonna toss this over to Nicole. The initial preparation was less than 3 minutes folks. Get you some egg roll wraps; and it's important to wet them down. so first you wet the egg roll wrap down, wet the whole wrap down with some water. Add a small portion of the cabbage mix to the egg roll wrap. Roll bottom flap over the filling, then fold each end over, left then right. Next just roll the product to completion, roll it until it is rolled fully. You may repeat the process by using a second wrap, we do this when there is a tear, crack or whole in the veggie roll. Its just reinforcement. Wet your second wrap down, and put the roll on top, then fold the bottom up, then both sides like before, and roll it on up. Its just like it came from the Oriental store but its from DeJavu. Roll you one more up, and as far as a side order to go with these, you can have some fried plantains with it, or veggie fried rice. We also have a fresh spinach, or some red beans and rice. As you know all our vegetables are vegan friendly.

Chef Gary Williams and Nicole
two fingers for the Vu

There you have a set of veggie rolls. You can have it as a appetizer or a entree; sometimes we add a little shrimp, and we call it our bayou rolls. For the finished product you'll just drop it in some frying oil at 350 degrees and cook until it is browned nicely. You can even use your "Fry Daddy" at home. Now serve these with a little plum sauce or a sweet chili sauce,it's your choice I would like to thank Nicole for helping us out today, with our vegan veggie rolls, eat your vegetables, and come see us at De'Javu Restaurant.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

New Orleans Famous Blackened Catfish

This week we're going to the roots, so get your cast iron black skillet ready.

Hi Folks, Welcome to Cooking With Chef Gary, as always we're coming to you from DeJavu Restaurant at 936 Florida Street in Memphis, Tennessee.

Today we are gonna do Blackened Catfish; its a dish that we cook in New Orleans and its Famous all over the world. Its was made famous by Chef Paul Prudhomme' in New Orleans.

We gonna take you right thru this, first we start by getting the cast Iron Skillet very hot. Then we gonna do our own little dry rub, Tarragon herbs, a little Italian seasonings, oregano and basil, and we gonna put a little Cajun seasoning to coat the fish.

We got out cast iron skillet good and hot with a little olive oil. The youngsters don't know anything about this kind of stuff. You got to be past 40 to know about this and almost country. Just coat the fish a little with the Cajun seasonings; then use a 5 to 7 lb catfish filleted. Put the herbs on it. Take a glance and and see your skillet good and hot, that is how you want it, so the fish goes down sizzling.

Now we ready to go; next we gonna then we gonna go with some fresh leaf spinach and some fried plantains. This always make a great meal at DeJavu. We want you to come down and try this dish, and we also fry Catfish, so it's no problem, you can have what you want.

Now when the skillet nice and hot, your will hear the sizzle, when you place the fish down, then its okay to put another piece down.

So we got Blackened Catfish, that is coated with Tony Catchers Cajun Seasonings, tarragon herbs,a little basil, and a little oregano and dry rub. You put that together and man its makes for a wonderful dish. Its a little olive oil in a cast iron skillet and just let it go. Cook it about 3-4 minutes on each side, and you have a wonderful dish.

3-4 minutes having pass its time to turn it over right quick. Check out how beautiful it is, it should be a dark coloring not burnt. A recap you got the blackening seasoning, and you want to cook it maybe 3-5 minutes on the other side and its ready.

We gonna serve this particular dish with fresh leaf spinach, and then some fried plantains. Oh Yeah... So after 5 minutes look at it and you got yourself a wonderful dish; the herbs marinated in them, and olive oil soaked up in there, its gonna be nice and moist. Just top it off with a little green onions and a lemon and we ready to go in with it.

Plate it up, and next you ready to make the fresh leaf spinach.

Chef James Moore, also a chef in the kitchen at DeJavu prepares the fresh leaf spinach by starting with about a half cup of water and a bunch of spinach leaves. We have the water hot in the saute pan, add a little butter, salt and pepper to taste, no butter if you prefer vegan. The spinach don't take long just a few tosses, and a quick toss, and you're looking good.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Welcome to Cooking with Chef Gary. This week we are live on the set of Good Morning Memphis. We did a couple quick demonstrations the Sun Dried Tomato Pasta and, one of our house Favorites "Big Keith Bayou Classic", which is a smorgasbord of seafood and veggies incorporated in a white sauce and served over Grilled Talapia.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Welcome to Cooking With Chef Gary, the cooking demonstration for this week is Crawfish Etouffee. Etouffee means stew, slow simmered.

We serve the Crayfish Etouffee over a bed of rice, but as a variation we have a item on the menu called the Arkansas Outlaw and it is The Crayfish Etouffee served over Fried Catfish. At Dejavu every entree is served with two vegetables, and as you know our vegetables are not only vegetarian but vegan vegetarian.

The basic preparation can be done early, then the actual cooking will take less than 10 minutes. You can cook this for a group of 4 to 6, or just for yourself and store for later meals.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Today Chef Gary Williams will be making Sundried Tomato Pasta. Chef Gary Williams prepared this dish in less than 10 minutes, its something anyone can follow and cook successfully, while serving as an all occassion dish; its all things to all people... have it for a casual meal, or dress it up and serve as an elegant evening meal... For all the bachelors or just men this is a perfect item to show your finesse in the kitchen without being Chef Boyee'. Ladies we know the hard part is making it look easy, so take it easy, and anyone will still swear that you were in the kitchen all day preparing this meal.

Although this is a vegetarian dish as well as vegan,it can still be dressed up by adding shrimp or simply topping it off with grilled chicken breast.

The actual DeJavu 1on1 will be published each and every Saturday morning. All cooking demonstrations will be compiled into a Cooking With Chef Gary DVD collection. Stay tuned for more details on this.

Also for more information on the upcoming mixer go tohttps://www.facebook.com/delighttravel and LIKE the page. DeJavu Restaurant and Delight Travels are making waves, and we are gonna show our hospitality in a Big way, by mixing fun, food, travel, and customer appreciation in a Special way... Laissez les bon temps roules "Let the Goodtimes Roll"

click below here to see illustrations of vegetable cuts and cooking demonstration

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Preparation of the vegetables, meats and stocks are an essential part of a great dish. Did you that the vegetable cut selected for a particular dish must complement the dish it is being used for. For example, a robust casserole would require larger pieces than a light stock. This week Chef Gary will give you an on camera demonstration using some of these cuts.

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Spinach and Mushroon Vegan Quesadilla in 5 minutes

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About Me

Title: Chef/owner DeJaVu New Orleans Creole Soul Food and Vegetarian Restaurant.
Hometown: New Orleans
Who or what was your first cooking influence? My mother. We call her "Mama Gamble." Her passion for cooking, her passion for people, just enjoying what she did.
What was the first thing you ever cooked or baked? Smothered pork chops with sweet peas and steamed rice. I was 12 years old.
What made you decide to become a chef and when was that? When I saw the looks on people's faces as a result of eating my mother's food. Food brings folks together. I want to do that because I love people.
What was something important that a fellow chef taught you? How to organize and how to just enjoy what you're doing. Taking care of people.
What is the Gary Williams style? Soul food with a Creole twist.
Describe a dish you created. Alligator Stew, a meal I put together when I moved here to Memphis. I'd been cooking over 32 years. Never seen a recipe. Just thought about my time in Miami and Las Vegas, New Orleans, California and blended seasonings -- a little henna curry with French bell peppers and onions, dry and fresh seasonings -- and the rest is history.